A Very Lurkyloo Christmas is FINISHED! New 3/16: Last Day of the Trip!

[beatlesblonde]

Yeah Carrie's back! I responded to some of your Tweets from the Pee Wee show, looked like fun!

I also wanted to share with you some of my pictures from your 1st day:

 

[blabbermouth]

Welcome back!

Great pic of the frog on Patrick, beatlesblond, and congrats!

 

[A-T-G]

Is that the return of Super Frog?! How nice of Super Frog to 'rescue' Patrick.

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

I just love reading your trip reports! So glad to see another one shaping up here!

I wanted you to know that the "Santa" you had your pic with and the one someone else told the story of is a Dis-ser too, I believe. He goes by Shanman and hangs his hat in the Camping forums here. I read his trippie already, so that is why I recognized him! You might want to go over there and read his report!


http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2367594

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Just know that there are no locks on the bathroom doors...

Hmmm....are you trying to keep someone in or out?

 

[Disneygrl36]

Danger frog is on Patrick!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[aharbin88]

Carrie, girl! You look FAHB-ooo-WUSSS!!!! Love, love, love the jacket!

 

[PryncessChrysty]

Carrie, I love the start of your TR so much I wanna marry it!


I hope everything went OK at your Dad's place.

I've been following your Pee Wee Tweets and the sets & puppets look AH-MA-ZING! I have always been a huge fan of his, I need to check the schedule and see if DH2B and I might be able to make it up there to see it before it's over.

BTW, did you see the pics of the ducks swimming down Main St. at DL after all of the torrential down pours last week? It was too cute! (I tried to find them to post here for you....but of course now they are no where to be found )

 

[NeverlandClub23]

BTW, did you see the pics of the ducks swimming down Main St. at DL after all of the torrential down pours last week? It was too cute! (I tried to find them to post here for you....but of course now they are no where to be found )

I can help

 

[PryncessChrysty]

I can help

Thank you!! I knew I saw them on Twitter, but I couldn't remember which Disney site posted it. MiceChat, DL Today, Disneyland News, there are so many....

 

[A-T-G]

Danger frog is on Patrick!!!!!!!!!!!!

Curse me and my laziness! It was "Danger Frog" NOT 'Super Frog' and I was too lazy to look it up!

 

[lurkyloo]

1. I have a Versa and I love it! It's an S, if that matters. I have a commute and it's been a great car for that. Hope yours did OK for a rental. I was told that 4 6' cowboys wearing 10-gallon hats would be comfortable in the car - don't know if that's true (I'm 5', no hat) but it's a great visual!

I love it!

2. I am so stoked that Patrick is doing the Pee Wee Herman set. I love me some Pee Wee! I don't care what Paul Reubens does in his personal life or where he does it as long no one gets hurt. Pee Wee is the BEST. I even quit a job where I had to work Saturdays when his show was on because I didn't want to miss Pee Wee. My younger kids watched Pee Wee's Big Adventure over the holidays and they thought it was great.

That is really cool! I have to admit I was not crazy about Mr. Herman when he was throwing a monkeywrench in our vacation plans, but now that I've seen the show, and seen the puppets Swazzle created for it, and watched Patrick puppeteer in it, and met Pee-Wee, all is forgiven!

3. I think I remember reading that you chemically straighten your hair, correct? Well I'm a curly head myself and my daughter flatironed my hair for the first time last week and OMG!!!!! I look like a totally different person! Pass the reverse perm!!!!! My husband likes my hair curly, and it is easier in some cases, but WOWZA I had no idea my hair could look like that. I guess it's the best of both worlds.

It is weird how different it makes one look. You are lucky because you can still go back to curls, but if you do decide to straighten it permanently, I highly recommend it! I also recommend finding a place in your city's Koreatown (if you have one!) to do it because it's waaaaay cheaper!

We already have a MK view booked so no problems there. We heard that anything below the 4th floor the view is blocked, so I really hope we can get higher up!!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Hey, Carrie! home!

Thanks!

Yeah Carrie's back! I responded to some of your Tweets from the Pee Wee show, looked like fun!

I also wanted to share with you some of my pictures from your 1st day:

Oh my gosh - I can't believe I forgot the part where Danger Frog actually jumped on Patrick! That picture is amazing!

Welcome back!

Hi! Thanks!

I just love reading your trip reports! So glad to see another one shaping up here!

I wanted you to know that the "Santa" you had your pic with and the one someone else told the story of is a Dis-ser too, I believe. He goes by Shanman and hangs his hat in the Camping forums here. I read his trippie already, so that is why I recognized him! You might want to go over there and read his report!

I should've known he'd be on the DIS too - I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the tip!

Hmmm....are you trying to keep someone in or out?

I think for most people with kids it's "out," but if I had kids, it would probably be "in"!

Carrie, girl! You look FAHB-ooo-WUSSS!!!! Love, love, love the jacket!

Well, thanks! I bought it many years ago at a vintage clothing store and totally forgot I had it until a few weeks ago. Only problem is it's 100% polyester, so MAN does it get hot!

Carrie, I love the start of your TR so much I wanna marry it!

Nice Pee-Wee reference there! I hope you can see the show. Rumor has it they'll extend it by 2 weeks into February, and they are entertaining offers to take it to Vegas and/or New York!

Thanks for the tip about the ducks!

I can help

SO cute - thank you!

Curse me and my laziness! It was "Danger Frog" NOT 'Super Frog' and I was too lazy to look it up!

 

[lurkyloo]

I’ve had a little bit of writer’s block trying to top my last installment, so instead I decided to shoot for “pretty good” just to get going again!

We headed out of Epcot and back to BoardWalk Inn, with a stop at BoardWalk Bakery along the way. I spotted “our” Friendship boat (the one that took us from our wedding to the reception), so DH took a few glamour shots.

Oooooh, baby!

Oh yeah, baby – work it!

Hey, baby, where ya goin’…?

I want to go to there.

While I waited in line for my Slice of Heaven On a Plate, DH took some pictures of the sample Disney Fairy Tale Wedding Cakes on display. Yeah, yeah – I know I already have pictures of them. But, c’mon, you can never have too many pictures of CAKE!

“Doris”

“Edie”

“Lurlene”

“Minnie”

“Moon Unit”

There was also a custom minicake in the case…

And they were selling gingerbread houses…

Oh yeah, and these babies…

Drooooool!

Somehow, my lust for peanut butter chocolate cake was temporarily overcome by my lust for pictures, because instead of going straight back to the room to devour said cake, we dillydallied all over the resort taking these:

Anything bearing even a passing resemblance to a special-event setup must be photographed.

If people ask about holding wedding events in the gloomy walkway under the BoardWalk Inn’s porch, I’ll be ready with pictures!

Here’s that neato fireplace again….

More gratuitous shots of my favorite public area at BoardWalk Inn…

 

[lurkyloo]

We took a nice break in the room, which for me consisted of sitting on the balcony eating peanut butter chocolate cake in front of the magnificent panorama of Crescent Lake…


My idea of heaven

…and for DH consisted of photographing his feet…

But we didn’t sit around for long. Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom started at 5pm, and we wanted to maximize our first-ever nighttime visit there!


The first thing we saw was…

… a giant Christmas tree that, at night, looked like every other Disney Christmas tree we would encounter. Call me a Grinch, but I don’t cotton to these new-fangled LED Christmas lights Disney started using this year. They only come in four colors, so after dark all the trees look the same. Plus, helloooo, none of the colors is pink! Or even purple!

Anyway, we managed to choke back our tears of disappointment and soldier on to…

The big blurry tree!

On our way to Everest, DH asked if we could check out the Dig Site playground, which we’d never bothered to explore before.

DH decided to try out the slide…

Not designed for people with hips

He gave it a …

But at least we saw a…

Off to Expedition Everest!

We rode it three times, and I almost tossed my cookies three times - it really is scarier in the dark!

Why, look! It’s two people who just rode Everest three times and didn’t toss their cookies!

At this point we were kind of out of ideas, Everest being the only ride we really like that was open. We went into Africa to take some nighttime shots, only to be met by a trio of Disney Suits who said we couldn’t go past Tusker House. By being nice, we got them to escort us 20 whole feet beyond that point so DH could take more pix.

 

[lurkyloo]

Then we wandered around some more… (is this as boring to read as it is to type…?)

By then we were so bored we decided we may as well go see what Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama was all about because, hey, no blazing sun and no lines!

Apparently, it is all about cheap.

But it’s a “roadside attraction” so cheap/tacky is OK – get it…? This place must’ve been greenlit by the same genius who thought it was OK to put off-the-shelf carnival rides in California Adventure.


The TriceraTop Spin was OK - I guess it was worth the 12-second wait….

But Primeval Whirl was so bad, we were actually laughing in disbelief in between screams of pain as we were yanked around the hairpin turns. Amazingly, it is possible to design a ride that’s worse than DCA’s Malibu Madness. Me no likey mouse coasters!

The Roots we still ain’t…

The single thing I liked about Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama was the adorable dinosaur head sticking out of the Airstream trailer that serves snacks!

Even if we were midgets, I’d still be taller than DH

Patrick liked the set design of the gift shop.

The “snow” in the windows is pretty dang clever:

Following our “Meh, what the hell…” theory of ride selection, we next stopped at Dinosaur. DH really really wants to like this one, but it just hasn’t happened. We figured the third time would be a charm.

“Rawwwwwwrrrr!”

Beating back the crowds, we squeezed our way into the pre-show screening room…

We must’ve taken a wrong turn - judging by the lack of theming, we’d stumbled into a ride at Universal Studios!

 

[lurkyloo]

Yeah, we got our own car, but it wasn’t cuz they were doing us a favor!

After this go-round, DH declared Dinosaur to be “not terrible”!

But my favorite part of the ride was the gift shop, where we found this adorable and oh-so-ironic for meat-loving me T-shirt:

On our way out (not… really) we hit Everest one last time.

Joe Rhode’s basement

A huge crowd had gathered on the bridge to Africa to gawk at the hundreds of birds sleeping in the trees.

Bird: “Hey! Put out dat LIGHT!”

Then it was off to Jiko to meet the Roots for a super-late dinner. (But, with their work schedule, 9:30pm is like noon to them!)


This is what Animal Kingdom Lodge’s lobby looked like when we got there:

And this is what it looked like when The Roots got there:

Before I switch over to Rootography, I’ll post a few more of DH’s pix.

I think this one’s the money in the waterfall outside Boma, given DH’s obsession with money at the bottom of Disney water features.

And I’m not even sure this one is right-side up, but I’m posting it cuz it’ll make you feel dizzy if you look at it too long – try it!

I think we may have had another looooong wait for a table just like last time I ate with the Roots, and I may have gotten grouchy with the hostess again, but I’ve managed to blot it out of my memory. You’ll have to ask them! All I remember now is that we had another fabulous meal and it was a ton of fun to catch up with them after six whole months. I remember being a bit breathless with all my questions — and that we pretty much shut the place down, but the staff still let us linger so Nate could shoot a few pictures of the place empty.



Here’s our evening from The Roots’ perspective, with bonus commentary of what I’m pretty sure they were thinking…

“Ooooooh! Pwetty!”

“Mmmmmm….. boooooooze!”

“So… does she ever stop talking?”

“Burp!”

[They got the steak with red wine sauce and mac ‘n’ cheese]

“Pistachio-mazing!”

“This guy is photographic GOLD!!!”

“Hey – free water!”

“Ka-chow!”

“Bam!”

“Sock-o!”

 

[lurkyloo]

After dinner, we ended up in my favorite perpetually empty nook off the lobby:

Patrick, Jensey and I went out on the balcony while Nathan made a pit stop. I glanced back inside and thought I saw him walking toward us, so I popped my head in and started waving madly and shouting “Hellooooo! Over heeeeeereeee! Yoohooooooo!” — until Patrick tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to Nathan, who was standing behind me as I practically propositioned a total stranger. I looked back to see some hapless guy with a look of pure terror in his eyes frantically backing away over an end table, an arm chair, etc.

Thankfully, the Roots were there to document my moment of mortification…

When we got back to the room, DH had to set up his computer and work on concept art for Ginger the Horse for Pee-Wee Herman’s stage show.


That’s right, he’s working on vacation!

Meanwhile, I busted into the a-friggin-dorable Disney Bride survival kit the Roots had given us. Check out the stuffed Roo — they had a “t” embroidered on his sweater to make “Root”!

Before he went to bed, Patrick took out the BoardWalk Inn stationery and wrote a letter to my dad. [sniff!]

Up Next: Day 3 - at last! DHS! Hugging Dug! And our first impressions of Osbourne Lights!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

All caught up. Eating PB cake on your balcony in the world: Priceless. Too bad about the "cookie cutter" trees. You would think they would be differently lit at each park.

I'm one of the only people I know who like Primeval Whirl! But then it doesn't take much to entertain me. I like Dinosaur, but it is a less exciting version of Indy, my all-time favorite at DL!

Oh, and congrats to Patrick on the PW show! I'm glad the pre-work is done and that it turned out so well for him!

 

[Aburns8]

Great report! Glad you are back! I can't ride Everst more than 2 times in a row or I don't feel so good after ride number 3. I have never been to Animal Kingdom at night, and it looks awesome since there are not many people there!

 

[thechesters420]

I love it. Great update!